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Ask a North Korean: Defectors Talk about Their Lives Inside the World’s Most Secretive Nation by Daniel Tudor [in Booklist]

For Western readers, most North Korea-focused titles cover two categories, writes Daniel Tudor, former Korea correspondent for The Economist: politics and “testimony-style books written by defectors who tell horror stories.” What’s missing are “the real daily experiences of the vast majority of the North Koreans” due to “a remarkable shortage of North Korean voices.” Proliferating defections, however, have enabled the success of the website, NK News, and its “Ask a North Korean” column, from which this book is drawn.

Numerous reasons point to why this book should be successful: historical/sociopolitical interest, current headlines, even schadenfreude-laden curiosity. Presentation, however, proves clumsy, encumbered by Tudor’s constant intrusions in every chapter, every question, that go beyond providing context and ultimately dampen the very North Koreans he purportedly champions; his repeated insistence that “North Koreans are human” has an unnecessarily exoticizing effect. Faults aside, these voices deserve attention, compassion, and respect.

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Welcome to BookDragon, filled with titles for the multi-culti reader. BookDragon is a new media initiative of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (APAC), and serves as a forum for those interested in learning more about the Asian Pacific American experience through literature. BookDragon is inhabited by Terry Hong.

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The Center gratefully recognizes the transformative commitment of the Ford Foundation to enriching and empowering Asian Pacific American communities in all of their vibrancy, diversity, and resilience.